Oprah: Armstrong admitted doping

[BroomWagon]

Most sports have gotten out of control these days. There is no sense of just going out to have a bit of fun and play a game - even for children. Everything is so cut-throat and it seems that almost everyone has this idea that they (or their child) is going to become a professional.

Even for those who are in another profession, there are crazy “weekend warrior” type events and training. The idea of sport as recreation and a way to be healthy - as opposed to crammed full of protein powders, steriods, and worse - is long gone.

And now, the injuries and concussions in the NFL. I enjoy pro-hockey, pro-basketball not so much. The NCAA tournament is somewhat good. Baseball okay but these teams in the NHL, MLB and NBA play so many games.

What is the NHL? About 88 games or something? They really don’t need to play that many.

 

[BroomWagon]

Bowling? What are they doing in competitive bowling?

Armstrong should have admitted that he had done something years ago. He’s human, he did something wrong…just admit it. I know people who race and looked up to him for inspiration in their cycling.

I think in bowling like golf, they may take pills to make one more aware and acute, ‘smart pills’, I know they had something happen in golf. There might even be use of performance enhancers in chess.

 

[katholikos12]

All this talk of Lance Armstrong. “He used drugs to win, wahhh”. The next person to win who DIDN’T use “drugs” (its his own blood by the way, not drugs) is so far down the line and obscure that no one has likely heard of him. Blood doping is no different than an advanced way of living at altitude or sleeping in an pressure chamber to increase your RBCs. The man is an athlete. And great one at that.

Let he who can survive a day with Lance on the Tour de France, with or without “blood doping”, cast the first stone .

Long Live Lance

 

[John_of_Woking]

Lance just wasn’t good enough with out the drugs. Plenty of better cyclists over the years who were clean:thumbsup:

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Why is anyone surprised by this? I mean really, the man was notorious for treating everyone close to him like they were nothing. Remember the wife who held his hand through cancer that he up and left? Why is anyone shocked that someone who would do that would do just about anything for money and fame?

 

[katholikos12]

Lance just wasn’t good enough with out the drugs. Plenty of better cyclists over the years who were clean:thumbsup:

Read what I said.

Better yet, look it up. The next cyclist to win the Tour de France who DIDN"T use drugs is I want to say… 162 currently?

Again it is not drugs, but his own blood that he used.

 

[hannajomar]

I’ve heard it said that celebrities who do wrong need to go to the “alter of Oprah” to confess their sins and seek forgiveness.

 

[LilyM]

Read what I said.

Better yet, look it up. The next cyclist to win the Tour de France who DIDN"T use drugs is I want to say… 162 currently?

Again it is not drugs, but his own blood that he used.

Whatever he did was lowdown cheating and contrary to the rules of the sport.

 

[katholikos12]

Whatever he did was lowdown cheating and contrary to the rules of the sport.

So if he got the same results by sleeping in a pressure chamber, and working out at altitude (like the majority of US Olympic athletes; the OTC is at 6000+ feet), he would not be a cheater?

How is taking it out and injecting it different if the result is the same?

 

[Mrs_Sally]

So if he got the same results by sleeping in a pressure chamber, and working out at altitude (like the majority of US Olympic athletes; the OTC is at 6000+ feet), he would not be a cheater?

How is taking it out and injecting it different if the result is the same?

Some practices are allowed by the sports ruling body; others are not. To do something not allowed and lie about it for years, is not behavor we should be condoning.

If you think the rules are stupid or wrong, you work to change the rules. You don’t just ignore them.

 

[katholikos12]

Some practices are allowed by the sports ruling body; others are not. To do something not allowed and lie about it for years, is not behavor we should be condoning.

If you think the rules are stupid or wrong, you work to change the rules. You don’t just ignore them.

I can’t agree. That’s too black and white.

One must take into account that the only way to succeed was to dope. Same in baseball with the prolific steroid use.

If the establishment doesn’t enforce the rule, then psychologically the rule does not exist.

Lance is being attacked because he won. Where is the attack on nearly everyone else who doped as well?

 

[LilyM]

So if he got the same results by sleeping in a pressure chamber, and working out at altitude (like the majority of US Olympic athletes; the OTC is at 6000+ feet), he would not be a cheater?

How is taking it out and injecting it different if the result is the same?

Would taking anabolic steroids be fine if the result of doing so was the same as well? It’s like saying ‘who cares whether I got that million dollars by hard work or by robbing a bank, the result is the same - I have a million dollars’. Not all means are the same or permissible.

For starters - how on earth do we know that the effect is the same? We never will. One presumes that practices are banned which give an UNFAIR advantage - in other words which do NOT exactly replicate the results of common training methods.

When you practice a sport you must abide by all its rules - including the rules about what doping (sorry, ‘performance enhancing’) methods are and are not permissible. As a Catholic you of all people you should understand that one cannot do wrong even if a seemingly good result is achieved or no apparent harm done.

 

[LilyM]

I can’t agree. That’s too black and white.

One must take into account that the only way to succeed was to dope. Same in baseball with the prolific steroid use.

If the establishment doesn’t enforce the rule, then psychologically the rule does not exist.

Lance is being attacked because he won. Where is the attack on nearly everyone else who doped as well?

There have been plenty of attacks - riders have been banned and stripped of titles and results left right and centre. Apart from their names being publicised and hence mud.

‘But everybody else was doing it’ is the weakest of excuses. If you know others are cheating, expose them, don’t join them. If you’re not happy with the rules, get them changed. If you can’t, then take up another sport or do something else.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I can’t agree. That’s too black and white.

One must take into account that the only way to succeed was to dope. Same in baseball with the prolific steroid use.

If the establishment doesn’t enforce the rule, then psychologically the rule does not exist.

Lance is being attacked because he won. Where is the attack on nearly everyone else who doped as well?

That’s not an excuse. If you do something wrong and get caught, you don’t automatically say “well, what about everyone else!”.

Other riders, plenty of other riders, have been sanctioned by the ruling body of cycling. But it doesn’t matter how many other people cheat, until the rules are officially changed, it is still cheating.

 

[katholikos12]

For starters - how on earth do we know that the effect is the same? We never will. One presumes that practices are banned which give an UNFAIR advantage - in other words which do NOT exactly replicate the results of common training methods.

because you test the red blood cell count (RBC) in a hematacrit. If the count is too high = doping.

The pressure chambers olympic athletes sleep in are regulated so that the result will not reach the “threshold” of what is considered “doping”.

 

[torch621]

I can imagine. It’s Sabre’s country around here. I’ve been making an effort to get into it but it hasn’t stuck yet.

Being a hockey fan; do you have any thoughts as to why steroids isn’t a problem in the sport when other sports are plagued with it?

I’m a Bruins fan.

 

[Irishmom2]

I’m a Bruins fan.

I can live with that. It’s like you are a Philly fan…

 

[april32010]

Though I think there is a good chance the 2 most recent winners are clean, Wiggins of UK and Evans of Australia.

Still, one can be skeptical of them all.

and this is the real shame,they all will be tarred with the same brush.

 

[dixieagle]

Why is anyone surprised by this? I mean really, the man was notorious for treating everyone close to him like they were nothing. Remember the wife who held his hand through cancer that he up and left? Why is anyone shocked that someone who would do that would do just about anything for money and fame?

My sentiments, exactly. I’ve always thought he was a slime ball, in it for himself alone. He was ruthless towards those who knew he was doping and spoke up, and I haven’t the slightest bit of sympathy for him.

Ironically, it may well have been the doping that caused his cancer.

 

[katholikos12]

My sentiments, exactly. I’ve always thought he was a slime ball, in it for himself alone. He was ruthless towards those who knew he was doping and spoke up, and I haven’t the slightest bit of sympathy for him.

Ironically, it may well have been the doping that caused his cancer.

how does having more RBCs cause cancer? Testicular cancer at that!

If this were the case, then Colorado and all people who live at high altitude would have a higher incidence of cancer.